October 4, 1996

28 Arab 'Refugees' Slip Into Sarajevo

ARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- American and NATO officials are
trying to determine how 24 Iraqis and 4 Jordanians landed here in a
Jordanian military plane and nearly slipped off unnoticed.

The men arrived on Sunday, but the case did become public until
late Wednesday. On Thursday morning U.N. officials, whose police
monitors have the right to interview prisoners, said they had
learned nothing.

"They are refugees," said a Bosnian official, who could not
explain what would attract a refugee here. The arrival of the men,
who were generally young and in good physical condition, is likely
to renew concerns about foreign Islamic fighters entering Bosnia
covertly. Jordan supplies 60 peacekeepers but these men, whose
flight originated in Turkey, are not part of that unit.

European military officers said American intelligence agents
discovered the men and requested their arrests. But a U.S. Embassy
spokesman said, "We didn't know about it until the Bosnian
government told us."

Americans who arrived at the police headquarters on Thursday in
a Jeep with darkened windows and no license plates would only say
they did not know about the case.

By late Thursday, investigators had found the men under police
guard in an apartment complex. There was a Jeep with darkened
windows parked next to the complex.